Posted on 11/23/2016 4:31:54 PM PST by mdittmar
WASHINGTON—In response to President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos to lead the Department of Education, AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement:
“The president-elect, in his selection of Betsy DeVos, has chosen the most ideological, anti-public education nominee put forward since President Carter created a Cabinet-level Department of Education.
“In nominating DeVos, Trump makes it loud and clear that his education policy will focus on privatizing, defunding and destroying public education in America.
“DeVos has no meaningful experience in the classroom or in our schools. The sum total of her involvement has been spending her family’s wealth in an effort to dismantle public education in Michigan. Every American should be concerned that she would impose her reckless and extreme ideology on the nation.
“We have an obligation to all children in America. That’s why we’ve fought to ensure that struggling schools get fixed, that we fight for kids to have the powerful learning, the social and emotional and wraparound services, and the great teachers they need. That’s why we fight for parents to have the voice they need and communities throughout the country to have the local decision-making for their schools and the investment they need, so we do everything we can to help all children have a great public education. What this pick means is far from ensuring that every child has the option of a great public education—the many who have it now will lose it. That’s been the experience of 25 years of privatizing: It helps very few, and many students now go to schools that have faced years of austerity and disinvestment.
“Betsy DeVos is everything Donald Trump said is wrong in America—an ultra-wealthy heiress who uses her money to game the system and push a special-interest agenda that is opposed by the majority of voters. Installing her in the Department of Education is the opposite of Trump’s promise to drain the swamp.”
Clearly, Donald Trump made an awesome nomination.
Makes me even more certain DeVos is the right choice. Close the Dept. of Education and send everything back to where it belongs; to the 50 individual States. And give Mrs. D our profound thanks for handling that job.
The NEA is a formidable opponent. Its building over on 16th St. houses a lot of lobbyists. They have a lot of power and have had it for decades.
I can’t wait for Trump to take them on.
I hope his administration makes a big difference. They are very powerful and well-funded.
What a blessing that would be.
Lawyers,Unions,Teachers and Government Workers!
I hope you are wrong, but I fear you are right.
I vastly prefer local control of education (to any Federal control.) But, that said, too many of these local school boards are just plain awful. The mismanagement and overspending approaches insane levels, and then when they get into serious financial trouble, it’s always another proposed tax increase “for the kids”. I believe it was the Chicago Tribune who exposed massive debt. acquisition in some of the districts in the Chicago “burbs”, due to foolish decisions. Not far from us, a local county has just increased the sales tax another 1%, to almost 10% total: The 1% is for education funding, despite the fact that the portion of local property taxes that goes toward education is already sky high, and enrollments are decreasing — partially because the schools have functionally gone into the crapper.
I really don’t know what the answer is. We home school, greatly diminishing our income, and any chance we’ll have more than a pittance in retirement. Many families cannot even afford to do that.
The one my son went to, ECOT (Ohio), was clearly worse than the government school.
They lied and cheated to keep kids from graduating, so all the kids I know who took ECOT (an online school, so no meeting teachers) eventually had to get GEDs in order to get jobs.
The State of Ohio shut down the one good charter school in my school district, because they said the local school was doing good enough, financially ruining the people who bet their life savings that they could run a better school.
I am actually not to happy about this proposal. The FIRST thing a struggling public school will do is to shove all their problem kids to private schools.
That and if a private school takes state funds, it will in time have to do what the state wants.
“I am actually not to happy about this proposal.”
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The public schools are going to become holding areas until the problem kids age out.
In Massachusetts they have to “educate” these troublemakers until Age 21. Can you believe it?
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If you do Trump and DeVos’s plan, the private schools who take the money will be worse.
A failing district will JUMP at the chance to offload their problem kids to another school.
“A failing district will JUMP at the chance to offload their problem kids to another school.”
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But will the private school be required to keep them?
I thought that they could be more selective.
(I MUST do more research on this topic.)
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On these education threads I hear a lot of ambivalence about the school choice agenda. I’m not sure that people understand how much of a threat it is to the entire progressive structure. Bottom line, is that very few parents would ever voluntarily choose to send their kids to schools ruled by teacher’s unions, so school choice equals non-union schools. The teacher’s unions are the number one source of funds for the Democrat Party, but even above that, they are also the main agents in the indoctrination of kids into liberal/progressive ideology, not to mention that they fail to provide millions with the opportunity to become full-functioning productive members of society.
So, “school choice” should really be read as “direct assault on the foundations of the Democratic Party, liberalism and the welfare dependency”.
If whiny Weingarten and her union had done their job properly, and helped get good teachers in school while getting rid of the unqualified, DeVos wouldn’t be getting the nomination.
Also, if the AFT hadn’t gone Marxist-lite Left, they might have been a real “leader” not an anti-education parrot for the liberal establishment.
Betsy DeVoss is an excellent choice in my opinion.
“In nominating DeVos, Trump makes it loud and clear that his education policy will focus on privatizing, defunding and destroying public education in America. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Let the leftist, Utopian Liberal Fascist tantrums begin!
Back to the states!
Funny to hear a lefty whine about gaming the system and pushing a special-interest agenda.
Can I play? I was homeschooled, which saved the taxpayers about $120,000. I demand reparations for my unpaid teacher!
This should put the crap about her being pro-Common Core to bed.....
School Choice. As Satchmo would say: Oh, yeaaah!
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